When a crisis breaks, our initial, instinctive response is often flight, fight or freeze. The most reliable way to stop that reaction from spiralling into a chaotic response to the crisis is through regular crisis training – like the simulations conducted by emergency services, the military and various government departments.
As leaders, we need to not only prepare our team for an eventual crisis but be able to be the leader the organisation needs when a crisis happens. That means being comfortable with making difficult decisions, often without all the facts at hand.
It means being the one who brings clarity to the chaos and who can steer through the storm to calmer waters. And it means setting a strategy and being able to use your team’s expertise and skills to implement it to resolve the crisis.
The pivotal role of psychological safety
But we can only get the most out of our people if they feel psychologically safe.
Amy Edmondon, Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School and author of ‘The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation and Growth’, has studied how people’s innate desire to fit in and not rock the boat can act as a roadblock for creativity and critical thinking.
She argues that organisations need to actively work on creating a psychologically safe environment in their businesses to help people feel that it’s safe to speak up without fear of ridicule or punishment.
This is especially important when it comes to crisis situations.
Leaders are fantastic for having the strategic overview of a situation, but crisis management is collaborative and it’s vital that information flows from the teams who deal with customers, suppliers and products or services every day to help shape the correct decisions.
To get the information that is needed by leadership, people need to feel that it’s safe to challenge authority and make critical decisions when necessary.
Mastering the physiological response
Research has shown that when we panic and start to breathe too quickly, we lower the amount of CO2 in our systems, and this can make our brain pump out more adrenaline and cortisol because it thinks we’re under attack.
We can become lightheaded and increasingly anxious.
This is why mindfulness techniques focus on exercises like diaphragmatic breathing.
But it can be very difficult not to get into a panic when a crisis hits if we haven’t had repeated exposure to potential crisis situations in the past (which is why crisis training and simulations are so helpful.)
Navigating a crisis as a leader
How you respond to stress is also important.
- Show courage. Make a decision and move forward, but have the courage to pivot when new facts are discovered
- Use your instincts as a leader. But also listen to your team and give them the space to share ideas
- Use an empathetic and inclusive communication style with the public and internally, don’t put more pressure on your team than they are under already
- Stick to your company values. This helps people see that you’re consistent and can be relied upon to do what you say
- Practice self-care. Take breaks, stay hydrated, move around
- Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Try to rewire yourself to ignore fight, flight or freeze by running rehearsals. Crisis leadership can be a difficult thing to get right.
You need to show strong leadership but also be willing to change direction and admit when you are wrong.
You need to be calm in the face of chaos and ensure that your people aren’t panicking about the situation either.
Ultimately, it’s the calm and flexible leaders who tend to get the best results in a crisis, and who have teams that work well together when the chips are down.
